Soldiers Should Carry

Can the average person mitigate a mass shooting? Have public massacres ever been stopped by civilians? When a mass shooting is ended by a civilian, is the body count less than when ended by a cop?

Yes. Yes. And yes. As seen from colleges to churches to apartment complexes, there's ample evidence that an armed, trained civilian is more than capable of dealing with a mass shooter.

Why then - in the wake of yet another military mass shooting - do combat-trained soldiers remain unarmed and therefore unequipped to defend themselves on base? If a civilian can neutralize a deadly threat in a shopping mall, then surely a soldier can eliminate such a threat on a military base. After all, these are the same people the State sends to Afghanistan armed with rapid-fire, belt-fed machine guns. Can they somehow not be trusted with a semi-automatic handgun while at home?

The choice is ours. We can continue to outsource our personal security, waiting eight whole minutes before the authorities arrive . . . to 3 dead and 16 wounded - as was the case last week at Fort Hood. Or we can heed the words of one of the empire's most well-known employees . . .